DIGITAL IMAGE CONVOLUTION PROCESSOR METHOD AND APPARATUS

A method and apparatus for processing digital data representative of a digital array of points of a source image including a source image memory (12) or digitized camera (40) for providing a source image as a digital array of points, with provision for generating an end of array, or end of frame signal, (32) each time that the array has been computationally adjusted and transferred to a destination image memory. A control processor (14) includes a convolution kernel algorithm having the elements thereof configured for establishing a computational sequence or offset (18, 10) for each point in the array relative to a reference point, with each element having a constant value for computational adjustment of the array for each frame time represented by that element. The computational logic (21, 22, 24) is responsive to the control processor (14) for mathematically manipulating each point of the source image digital array for transfer to the destination image memory (14) in a position spatially related to the source image array. Each end of array signal enables the control processor to reset to the next element of the convolution kernel to establish a new constant and new offset for subsequent iterative computational processing, and combining with the adjusted value in the destination image memory (24), with the total number of iterations determined by the number and values of the computational values whereby the source image array is transformed into an array of digital values in the destination image memory representative of a convolved image.